Though the girls have moved on the blog continues in order to preserve and honour the memories of the greatest bunch of young people to have ever played the game (IMHO!). It is aimed at players past and present, as well as anyone else interested in women's rugby who might be trying to make sense of what on earth is going on, even if that meant going to an unofficial and uncensored source of speculation, debate and discussion about the game.

It has no official connection with any girls' or women's teams currently representing Letchworth GC RUFC is NOT an official website within the meaning of RFU Regulation 5.

Friday, July 18, 2008

Further to yesterday's post on the IRB's guide to the ELVs... here it now is! I guess I should have thought that someone else would already have converted it

Its just over 17 minutes long, but bear with it as its pretty important so please find time to watch it. Think of it as your summer homework. I know Simon from Saracens says there are better examples around, and no doubt there are, but this is the official guide and does have a useful voice-over commentary. It is, in short, the way the IRB say that the ELVs should work.

I must say that the maul stuff (though not strictly relevant) does look pretty dangerous - especially as presumably IRB have chosen the "cleanest" examples. The video does explain why the change is proposed, but as solutions go... well, I'm just pleased that its not going to be introduced in junior rugby!

Its also worth reporting that the ELVs debate is getting quite nasty (this New Zealand article ,and in particular the responses to it, are pretty typical). Its not inconceivable that there could be a real trial of strength between the RFU and other northern unions, and the IRB and the southern hemisphere (not sure where USA and Canada stand - a question that is far more relevant to the women's game).

In what is seen by many as a shot across the RFU's bows, the IRB announced this week that the the worldwide "trial" will be reviewed "within the first quarter of 2009". Quite where we will stand if the IRB push ahead and the RFU and its allies insist on keeping their variations could be interesting (and quite damaging to the game). After all, its a racing certainty that Australia, New Zealand and South Africa will vote in their favour, so the north and south squaring off against each other in 2009 must be a possibility.

One thing the video doesn't include is much about one major bone of contention between the RFU and the IRB - that of the replacement of many penalties (and scrums) with free kicks. There are other videos that cover this - including this lecture by a New Zealand referee called Paddy O'Brien (part 1 and part 2). Rather a lot of talking from the follicly challenged Kiwi, but the video examples are different to the IRB ones and maybe clearer at times.

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